Only a few more days until gates swing wide, inviting us in to the magic that is PARF!

So a couple of weeks ago I went back to Germany for the first time since I lived there as a youngster.  I'm tempted to say "it looked smaller", but really it looked pretty much the way I remember. 

Except for the autobahn.  First, there are many more speedlimited regions on the autobahn than I remember; second, the Germans appear to have given up on trimming the verge and much of the roadside has a distinctly neglected and overgrown look, even around rest stops.  This would have been unthinkable when I lived there. 

Apart from that, the country remains as naturally beautiful and as blessed with architectural beauty as I remember.

I loaded a small sample of some pics I took into my gallery, feel free to take a look.

For reasons I won't explain here, I did not have my camera with me on the night my colleagues and I went to dinner at this place:

[url]http://www.burg-windeck.de/[/url]

Burg Windeck sits on a hill on the edge of the Black Forest overlooking the town of Baden-Baden.  The fortress dates from the year 1200 AD, and consists today of two large towers commanding the top of the outcropping surrounded by a massive wall, beside which sits a small gasthaus and winery.  It doesn't look it in the picture on this website, but the vine-covered slopes drop away from the castle walls at a VERY steep incline, and the dining room perces right at the edge of the cliff, giving diners a dramatic view of the vinyard and the valley beyond.  On a clear day, which sadly the evening of my visit was not, you can see into the hills of France from this vantage point.

Anyway, a couple of times a year, Burg Windeck hosts a "medieval market", which sounds very much like a weekend tent faire.  One of my co-workers on this trip is a fellow rennie, and he and I have vowed to schedule our next trip over to the German home office to coincide with one of these weekends.  I imagine we'll have to ship our steel over before hand - can you imagine trying to get a rapier and main gauche through airport security these days? - but IF I manage to pull this off, I may have much more interesting photos from my next trip.

That's all for now

Okay, so it's been a while since I've blogged.  I am a diffident blogger at best.  Still, once in a while I feel the need to put fingers to keyboard and tap out a minor missive or two, and with Celtic Fling fast approaching, today is one of those days!

PARF's Fling - held annually on the last full weekend of June - is definitely one of the highlights of the rencalendar.  More of a music festival and general celebration of contemporary celtic culture than a renfaire, the Fling attracts visitors from all over the east coast the the beautiful grounds of the Mt. Hope Estate and Winery for three days of incredible good times!  Plus, for those of us eagerly awaiting the start of regular faire season in mid-August, the Fling offers an opportunity to garb it up, get together, and gab with all our renfriends a full six weeks early!

So, for anyone within range of this blog, get yourselves kilted up and join us at PARF on the 23rd! 

The Crew of the Stormbringer, Clan MacHuge will be invading the North Carolina Renfaire in Raleigh opening weekend. Consider yourselves warned!  Or invited, whatever!  Either way, if you're going to be in the Raleigh area on March 31st, come join us for our first Faire Day of the season!